News: Dublin hurlers have a new manager. It has been announced that Humphrey Kelleher will take over from Marty Morris, who departed in controversial circumstances last September.
Kelleher is a former Waterford hurler who now lives in Portmarnock in Dublin. Although he has no intercounty experience, he has trained his club Naomh Mearnog's senior team and was a prominent member of the committee which drew up the "Blueprint for Dublin Hurling" report two years ago. He has also served as captain of The Island golf club this year.
He has been appointed for three years and his first match in charge will be next January's Walsh Cup fixture with Wexford.
Meanwhile, the provincial club championships are on course for an unusually early finish. For the past two years the Leinster football final has taken place only a couple of days before Christmas, but should Round Towers and St Brigid's decide the issue on Sunday week, club fixtures will be over for the year.
This coming Sunday sees a bumper five provincial finals being played. These include a clash of the Leinster and Munster hurling finals, which has been a bone of contention for hurling followers.
Leinster secretary Michael Delaney is quick to point out that this double booking was not deliberate and that the provincial councils try to avoid such clashes.
"When we sat down to plan the year the Munster final was down for last Sunday, but when the Waterford county final ended in a draw the knock-on effect pushed the provincial final back a week."
This also means that the Munster football final will take place in Limerick while the hurling final between Patrickswell and Newtownshandrum goes ahead in Thurles.
Delaney says that the lack of replays and clement weather has not resulted in a significant financial shortfall for the provincial council. "So far there has been only one draw and an unexpected one (Louth's Knockbridge and Carlow's Naomh Eoin in the hurling championship). But the club championships aren't a significant money maker unless the football final is an attractive pairing."
This year's does not, according to Delaney, come into the crowd-pulling category. "From a financial point of view the worst team tends to be any Dublin champions because they tend not to bring big support. And the same goes for town teams. So we wouldn't be expecting a big crowd for the football (Dublin's St Brigid's and Round Towers from Kildare town)."
In Connacht, the council has taken steps to ensure the championship runs on time by introducing extra time in matches, although none of the fixtures so far have required it. This will also apply to Sunday's Caltra-Curry match.
It has been announced that Pat Roe will manage the Wexford footballers.
Former Laois player Roe has experience of intercounty management with Carlow, whom he took to an O'Byrne Cup victory two years ago before stepping down at the end of the 2002 championship.
His new appointment sees him take charge of Wexford just as the county is about to spend its first season in the top flight of the league, having been promoted last year. Roe succeeds the Dublin-based Dom Twomey, who resigned the position after a year because of increased work commitments.
Finally, the GAA has announced that former Clare manager Cyril Lyons and Kilkenny's All-Ireland winning manager Brian Cody will take charge of the 2002 and 2003 All Star hurling teams scheduled to travel to Phoenix, Arizona, in January.
Lyons managed Clare when the county reached last year's All-Ireland final and recently stepped down after four years in charge and was replaced by 1995 and 1997 All-Ireland winning captain Anthony Daly.
This year's hurling All Stars will be announced tomorrow and the awards banquet will take place in City West hotel this Friday night, when the football All Stars for 2003 will be announced live on RTÉ television.
